On Saturday, June 30, 2018 more than 1,000 former graduates will gather behind the Parsons Complex to attend the fifth Milford High School (MHS) All-Class Reunion. From 9:00 am registration until the 5:00pm closing comments, there will be countless opportunities for classmates to mix, mingle, and reminiscence about what made their particular MHS years so unique.
Some classmates will recall when the courtyard functioned as the old Milford High School football field. Others will remember attending classes at the original “Yellow Brick Building” on West River Street (currently the River Park Apartments.) All alums will sport name tags, swap contact info, and exclaim how their friends, frenemies, and ex-crushes, “haven’t changed one bit!”
“The very first All-Class Reunion was in 1983”, says Deb Franco Smith (Class of ’75), which was the same year the MHS building (which eventually morphed into the Parsons Government Center) was shuttered due to declining enrollment. As co-chair of the 2018 reunion alongside her husband Win Smith (’76), she credits Jim Rose, (’33), the “King” of the 2008 MHS All-Class Reunion with initially suggesting “a reunion of all classes as a way to share our school spirit”.
That first reunion in 2003 attracted an astonishing 10,000 attendees, included a parade through Milford center, and featured a skydiver landing on the football field. “The original plan was to have an all-class reunion every 10 years. But then the committee thought it might be better to have one every five years, as none of us were getting any younger,” Smith jokes.
The committee members have been diligently working to create a program that will include food, music, classic cars, tours, “a cop bucket” (for photos), awards, and the ever-popular crowning of a King and Queen, customarily bestowed on the oldest attending alums. “We’ll have memorabilia from MHS set up in the old snack stand on the football field,” she says. There will also be balloons, flowers, banners, vendors, tents, tables, chairs, t-shirts, and hats for sale.” All proceeds after expenses—including revenues raised through the official event program—will go towards the Jim Rose MHS Scholarship, which is awarded to two graduating students from any Milford High School.
Over the same weekend, individual classes will traditionally schedule their own mini-class reunions. Additionally, the town of Milford will be holding a “Kick-off to Summer” celebration that will culminate with evening fireworks at the Harbor.
Advanced registration for the 2018 All-Class Reunion (same price for classmates and guests) is $16 per attendee when paying in advance; $20 if paying on the day of the event. For more details go to: http://www.mhsallclass.com
